Trymaine Lee to Deliver Keynote Speech at Annual Rosa Parks Luncheon

Award-winning journalist and podcast host Trymaine Lee ’03 will be the keynote speaker at the 19th annual Rosa Parks Luncheon on Tuesday, Feb. 27, at Rowan University.

Lee, who earned his bachelor’s degree in journalism from Rowan, is the host of the “Into America” podcast for NBC News and a correspondent for MSNBC.

Open to the public, the luncheon begins at 11 a.m. in the Eynon Ballroom of the Chamberlain Student Center, located at 201 Mullica Hill Road, Glassboro. Tickets are available for purchase.

All proceeds from the luncheon, which is sponsored by the Rosa Parks Luncheon Committee, support the Gary Hunter Memorial Scholarship, awarded to deserving undergraduate students in the Africana Studies program at Rowan. Gary Hunter, a professor at Rowan and one of the founders of Africana Studies, passed away in 2003.

Trymaine Lee was part of the 2006 New Orleans Times-Picayune news team that won the Pulitzer Prize for their coverage of Hurricane Katrina. Additionally, he won an Emmy for his reporting on gun violence and trauma in Chicago. He is also the cohost, along with Charles Coleman Jr., of the MSNBC series “Black Men in America: Road to 2024,” which is airing this month.

A past recipient of the Emerging Journalist of the Year award from the National Association of Black Journalists, Lee has also contributed to The New York Times Magazine’s “1619 Project.” He has reported for various local and national news outlets, including The New York Times and Huffington Post.

In his keynote speech, Lee will share his personal story, his experiences as a journalist, and discuss his forthcoming book on race, trauma, and gun violence in America. Lee, who was raised in Chesilhurst, grew up attending the Milton S. Hershey School in Hershey, PA. During his time at Rowan University, he wrote for The Whit, the student newspaper, and was involved in the Black Student Union.

The Rosa Parks Luncheon, part of Rowan University’s celebration of Black History Month, honors Rosa Parks, often referred to as the ‘mother of the Civil Rights movement.’ Rosa Parks’ refusal to give up her seat to a white passenger on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955 sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott and became a significant moment in the Civil Rights Movement.

For more information about the luncheon, please contact Denise Williams at 856-256-4818 or Julie Peterson at 856-256-4596.

Amplifying African American Voices through the Arts and Politics’ is the theme of this year’s Black History Month.